Ambassador Kushner Stands Up to Macron on Antisemitism

Ambassador Charles Kushner’s stand against antisemitism in France is worthy of a “bravo.” Instead, it has earned America’s envoy to the City of Light a tongue lashing from the grandees of the Fifth Republic. We don’t quite grasp where the nation that convicted Alfred Dreyfus, hosted Drancy, and feted Vichy gets off on lecturing the son of Holocaust survivors about its track record with respect to the world’s oldest hatred.France’s foreign ministry summoned Mr. Kushner after the New Jerseyan wrote an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron in the Wall Street Journal alleging that the country had not taken “sufficient action” to address antisemitism. Paris called the claims “unacceptable” and described itself as “fully mobilized” to combat the “intolerable” rise of prejudice against Jews. The French fumed that Mr. Kushner had violated etiquette and protocol. Mr. Kushner, in his op-ed, put it directly: “Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France. In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism — plain and simple.” He adds that in France, “not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized.”Mr. Kushner marks that “antisemitism has long scarred French life, but it has exploded” since Hamas’s assault on October 7, 2023. “Since then,” he notes, “pro-Hamas extremists and radical activists have waged a campaign of intimidation and violence across Europe.” Those forces gained a boost when the Élysée Palace announced its intention to recognize a Palestinian Arab state. That decision was decried by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The leader of the Jewish state, in his own letter to Mr. Macron, ventured that the French demarche “is not diplomacy, it is appeasement.” The premier adds that “it rewards Hamas terror, hardens Hamas’s refusal to free the hostages, emboldens those who menace French Jews and encourages the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.” Mr. Macron swatted away Mr. Netanyahu’s criticism as “abject” and “erroneous.” What an obnoxious claim. The burden of proof is, after all, on the French president, who stands at the van of the country with the largest Jewish population in Europe. French Jews have endured French antisemitism for years, from the murders of Ilan Halimi, Mireille Knoll, and Sarah Halimi to the siege at the Hypercacher Supermarket, which claimed four lives. Just days ago, a tree planted in Ilan Halimi’s memory was savagely felled. Where is Mr. Macron?In the four months following the October 7 attacks, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France reported that antisemitic incidents increased by 1,000 percent. Incidents of hostility to Jews were recorded in 94 percent of France. A quarter of these encounters were marked by calls for the “murder of Jews.” The electoral strength of the socialist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, an espouser of antisemitism, is a baleful omen.Against this backdrop Mr. Kushner’s urging that Mr. Macron “enforce hate-crime laws without exception; ensure the safety of Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses, prosecute offenders to the fullest extent; and abandon steps that give legitimacy to Hamas and its allies” could be seen as the bare minimum. Mr. Kushner strikes a personal note when he reminds that “President Trump and I have Jewish children and share Jewish grandchildren.”Mr. Trump, in his first term, pardoned Mr. Kushner — father of his son-in-law, Jared — of long-ago tax and campaign violations. Now, in the face of Mr. Macron’s inaction on one of France’s biggest problems, it says a lot that Foggy Bottom is standing by Mr. Kushner. A spokeswoman declares that “Ambassador Kushner is our U.S. government representative in France and is doing a great job advancing our national interests in that role.”

Ambassador Kushner Stands Up to Macron on Antisemitism

Ambassador Kushner Stands Up to Macron on Antisemitism

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